Greetings, my beloved readers! I’m thrilled to be back at the helm here on Green Scene, and many thanks to Christy Baker for so ably keeping the conversation going while I was away. I’m thrilled to be a new mom, too. We welcomed Elsie on July 31 and it’s been an amazing ride since then. I’ll have more for you some other time on all the ways that baby care and greenness do (and do not) mix.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d jump back into blogging with a little update on our chickens. A lot’s happened since I last posted, at which time we had three hens who mostly stayed inside their electric fence. Mostly, but not always: We sometimes let them out for fun, and they were starting to figure out that they could fly over the fence and would occasionally escape.
See how they run!
Well, we kept letting them out under our supervision and they kept getting bolder and bolder about letting themselves out. It seems the menu of insects and clover in our yard is far superior to what’s inside the run. We found their antics mildly annoying but, since our established garden was mostly impervious to their scratching, didn’t sweat it too much.
Eventually we got our comeuppance when one of the hens simply disappeared off the face of the earth. We think it was a hawk who took her away—it’s migration time for them, and we spotted more of the raptors nearby in the week or so following.
It’s just part of having chickens, we’re told: Sometimes they get eaten.
Left with only two birds, we wanted to rebuild our flock and, if possible, to prevent a repeat tragedy. Next time I’ll tell you how we did it.
